When it comes to tools, Java developers prefer the JUnit testing framework, Jenkins continuous integration server, and Git version control system most of all, a survey of more than 2,000 Java professionals reveals.

"It probably comes as no surprise that among the 2,164 developers we surveyed, Java SE 7is used by two-thirds of developers, but even more are using JUnit at 82.5 percent, making it the most-used single technology across the entire Java landscape," states the report by tools vendor ZeroTurnaround's RebelLabs business unit. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents were developers.

Other popular Java tools, according to the survey, are Jenkins (70 percent), Git (69 percent), the Hibernate object-relational mapping framework (67.5 percent), the Maven build tool (64 percent), and the Nexus repository (64 percent). Eclipse, used by 50 percent of respondents, was the most popular IDE, while MySQL (at 32 percent) was the top SQL database technology. MongoDB (at 56 percent) was the leading choice for NoSQL.

Just 7 percent of respondents were using Java SE 8, which was released in March, while 26 percent were still on Java 6. But usage of Java 6 had been 88 percent in 2012. And 35 percent cited upgrading to Java 8 as a priority for 2014-2015. Most respondents -- 68 percent -- also were using Java EE.

When it comes to new languages on the JVM, Scala topped the list of languages of most interest to respondents, at 47 percent. It was followed by Groovy (31 percent) and Clojure (12 percent). "Considering the professional support and community strength behind Scala by Typesafe, it's easy to see the Scala ecosystem continue making gains into enterprises as a serious alternative to Java," the report says.

As far as developers' priorities for this year and next, technologies such as devops and development in the cloud (both at 7 percent) trailed Java 8 considerably. Devops, the report says, "seems to be struggling to find a crisp and clear mission statement -- it is not always clear what is the key problem it is solving." The Internet of things was cited by only 5 percent of respondents.